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The majority of respondents to the original post have focused on the
requirements of the jobs that the students will have after completing the
program. I also think that the course objectives should be questioned when
considering which tool to use.
TWhirlers basically have said that : Frame is wonderful for longer, documents
that have relatively complex structures, referenced graphics, indices, etc. Word
is adequate for shorter documents/manuals that are not graphic-heavy. PageMaker
is great for layout of the brochures, newsletters that you mention.
But what is the objective? Is it to introduce the student to DTP concepts or to
a specific tool? It's a first-level course, and you state that you won't be
covering the complex organizational topics at which Frame excels. Will you be
introducing the concepts of text and white-space organization, widows and
orphans, when to table info and when to list, etc.? PM could easily handle these
introductory concepts.
A second, more advanced class in DTP can combine thoroughly teaching a
-specific- tool with more advanced information design techniques.
The original post, below, leads me to believe that the objective is to introduce
students to the first level of DTP best practices. PageMaker can illustrate
these concepts just fine for the kind of short brochures and newsletters Jessica
describes.
Jessica, I hope this helps. Congratulations on your new position; what an
exciting assignment!
--Kimber Miller
kimber_miller -at- acs-inc -dot- com
Dallas, Texas, USA
I am the director of the new Technical Communication AAS in Alexandria,
Minnesota. I am in the process of choosing a software for our Desktop
Publishing course, and I am not sure whether Pagemaker or Framemaker would be
better. Here are the factors.
1. The majority of our grads will work in small businesses creating shorter
manuals, brochures, newsletters, etc.
2. It is a one semester class so will not go into advanced features.
3. We already have Pagemaker in our labs.
However, Framemaker shows up as a requirement on nearly every TechComm job I've
seen listed. I'm not familiar with the software, but I'm willing to learn it and
teach it, if it is the only way to go. I appreciate your input on this.
Jessica Lourey
General Education Department
Alexandria Technical College
Jessica Lourey
General Education Department
Alexandria Technical College
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